1. Field
Various embodiments of the present invention relate to a radio communication device having a first communication unit connected to a board-band radio network through a base station and a second communication unit connected to a local-area radio network through a fixed station, a radio communication method using the radio communication device and a radio communication program for implementing the radio communication device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Radio communication devices such as cellular phones, etc., each of which is connectable to a wide-area radio network, such as a public cellular phone network, and a local-area network, such as WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) or the like, have been developed. For example, devices such as FMC (Fixed Mobile Convergence) terminal, a dual terminal, etc. are known (for example, JP-A-10-41970). The radio communication devices such as the dual terminal, etc. are used in various methods in which communications associated with public affairs such as business, etc. are executed by connecting the radio communication device to a local-area radio network and also communications associated with private affairs other than the business are executed by connecting the radio communication device to a wide-area radio network.
Such a radio communication device can execute communications through the local-area radio network such as data communication, voice communication based on VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol), etc. in a communication range of a fixed station serving as an access point of the local-area radio network. When the radio communication device is located with the communication range of the local-area radio network, the radio communication device executes communication such as data communication, voice-communication based on VoIP or the like, and also executes the processing of receiving a signal called as beacon transmitted from a fixed station of the local-area radio network when the radio communication device does not execute any communication such as data communication, voice-communication or the like. On the other hand, when the radio communication device is located outside the communication range of the local-area radio network, the radio communication device executes a scanning operation of detecting a connectable local-area radio network. The scanning operation of the connectable local-area radio network is executed on communication set information such as a radio LAN profile representing communication setting associated with a pre-recorded local-area radio network or the like. Furthermore, the radio communication device is connected to a wide-area communication network, and executes communication such as data communication, voice communication as a cellular phone or the like.
As described above, the radio communication device such as the dual terminal or the like can be used in a dual mode in which both the processing associated with the local-area radio network and the processing associated with the wide-area radio network are executed. The radio communication device such as the dual terminal or the like can be also used in a single mode in which the processing associated with only one of the communication networks is executed and the processing associated with the other communication network is stopped. When the radio communication device is used in the single mode, there is an advantage that the power consumption can be more greatly suppressed as compared with the case where it is used in the dual mode.